The invention is directed to a filled ready-for-use dough, which can be preserved in a refrigerator or freezer and which is typically prepared from flour, sugar, a leavening agent, a fat, water, optionally sugar, and other ingredients. The dough includes score lines thereon which facilitate breaking the dough into smaller pieces for baking into a final product, such as cookies, brownies, or muffins, with each piece containing a creamy, liquid, or solid filling of an edible material.
Ready made cookie doughs already exist on the market. Typically, the dough is refrigerated and packaged either in a cylindrical shape or packaged in a cup. During use, the consumer uses a spoon or a knife to form the cookie in a circular shape prior to baking. This particular cookie dough preparation requires extensive manipulation of the cookie dough prior to use. If the cookie dough is packaged in the form of a block or sheet, then a forming device is needed in order to give the cookie the desired circular form. This cookie dough manipulation, however, leaves remnants of cookie dough pieces which must then be recycled and reshaped if desired.
Another conventional product is a frozen cookie dough which is in the form of individual amounts to form single cookies. The amounts are provided by forming dough balls or by cutting the dough into individual pieces. The balls or pieces are then placed adjacent each other on a tray or other support, and are then frozen. The dough pieces, being tacky before freezing, stick to adjacent pieces and freeze into a solid block. During use, the consumer thaws the block and then separates the individual pieces for baking. As the preparation before freezing is somewhat complex, an improvement on these type products is also needed.
PCT Application No. WO 01/06858 discloses a flat sheet or block of refrigerated dough which includes grooves or score lines that define pieces of dough that can be broken off and baked into individual cookies. Each piece includes a filling of a liquid, cream, or solid edible material therein to provide a compound cookie.
It is desirable in certain situations to fully contain the filling within the dough so that it remains inside the final baked cookie. The present invention now provides a method for making filled cookies, while substantially avoiding oozing or dripping of the filling during baking of the dough product.
The invention relates to a ready-for-use dough product including a filling and dough surrounding the filling, a top portion, a bottom portion, and side portions, with the filling being sized and configured to have a shape that is shorter in distance vertically from the base portion to the top portion than horizontally between the sides when viewed in cross-section. In one embodiment, the dough to filling has a ratio weight of about 50/50 to 95/5. In another embodiment, the shape of the filling is substantially in the form of a rectangle, triangle, pentagon, hexagon, half circle, diamond, trapezoid, or oval. In an additional embodiment, the vertical distance is about 5% to 90%.
In another embodiment, the dough is in a sheet or block form having a generally uniform thickness wherein the top portion has a surface that includes an imprint of grooves, score lines, or combinations thereof, that defines pieces of the dough to be broken off and baked, with the imprint extending into the thickness of the dough and each piece containing a filling which is surrounded above, below, and on two sides by dough. In some cases, it is preferred for the imprint to not extend entirely through the dough. In another embodiment, the dough product is in the form of a parallelepipedal or prismatic block having a thickness of about 0.5 to 5 cm, wherein a plurality of fillings are provided, with each filling having the recited shape and being spaced from adjacent fillings. In another embodiment, the product is in the form of a flat sheet having a thickness of about 1 cm to 3 cm and the fillings are provided as a plurality of spaced stripes in the dough.
In a preferred embodiment, the dough may be a sweet dough. In one embodiment, the dough includes flour, a leavening agent in an amount of up to about 3% by weight, optionally sugar, and a fat. In another embodiment, the product further includes pieces of chocolate, nuts, fruit, or candy inclusions in an amount of about 5% to 50% by weight of the dough, wherein the pieces are about 1 mm to 10 mm in size. In still another embodiment, the flour is present in an amount of about 10% to 60% by weight, the sugar, when used, is present in an amount of about 10% to 50% by weight, the leavening agent is present in an amount of about 0.1% to 3% by weight, the fat is present in an amount of about 5% to 33% by weight, and a texturing agent is present in an amount of up to 10% by weight and a flavoring agent is present in an amount of up to 8% by weight. In a preferred embodiment, the texturing agent includes egg or egg white present in an amount of about 0.1% to 10% by weight, the flavoring agent is present in an amount of about 0.1% to 7% by weight, the fat is a solid, semi-solid, or liquid at room temperature and of animal or plant origin, and the dough has a moisture content of about 2% to 25%.
In still more embodiments, the dough is in the form of a block having at least one of: at least two different dough layers, at least two different dough strips, at least some of the pieces have different colors, at least some of the pieces have surface decorations, or at least two different doughs swirled together. Preferably, the product is refrigerated or frozen prior to use.
In one embodiment, the dough includes a bakery dough for forming one more of: muffins, crackers, rolls, biscuits, pie crusts, breads, pizza doughs, or bagels.
The invention also relates to a method for providing a filled dough product which comprises providing a filling within a dough having a top portion, a bottom portion, and side portions, with the filling being sized and configured to have a shape that is shorter in distance vertically from the bottom portion to the top portion than horizontally between the side portions when viewed in cross-section to provide the filled dough product. In one embodiment, the filled dough product is prepared by coextruding the dough and the filling such that the dough surrounds the filling.
In another embodiment, the method further comprises coextruding the dough in the form of a parallelepipedal or prismatic block having a thickness of about 0.5 to 5 cm and providing a plurality of fillings therein, with each filling having a first desired shape and being spaced from adjacent fillings. In another embodiment, the dough block is coextruded as a pair of flat sheets having a thickness of about 1 to 3 cm and the fillings are provided as a plurality of spaced stripes which are extruded between the dough sheets.
In yet another embodiment, the dough is formulated to flow upon baking and the sheet is cut into pieces that are baked on a sheet or pan that allows the pieces to flow to form individually baked products having a second desired shape. In another embodiment, the dough is coextruded in the form of a block having at least two different dough layers, at least two different dough strips, at least some of the pieces have different colors, at least some of the pieces have surface decorations, or at least two different doughs are swirled together. In another embodiment, the filling is provided in discrete pulses, such that when the dough is cut into pieces, the fillings are contained within each piece and do not cross into adjacent pieces.